When I happened to see this on the shelf in the snack section at my local grocery store, I assumed it was just a cheese-flavored cracker. But a closer inspection revealed that it wasn't--instead it was a snack composed solely of grated and baked pieces of cheese. Literally. The ingredient lists for these snacks are just the cheeses themselves, with nothing else, not even preservatives. Anyway, I got two types of the Whisps snacks--the asiago & pepper jack kind, and the parmesan one.
As has become the norm lately, I couldn't find out who created the Whisps brand, and when, from their official company website. Fortunately though, I was able to learn some details from other online sources, which I think are accurate. According to these, Whisps was founded by Ilana Fischer, an executive of Schuman Cheese, based out of New Jersey. Schuman specializes in selling imported cheeses from various places around the world, including South America, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Spain, Israel, Greece, Belgium, France, and especially Italy. Fischer started the Whisps line in 2015. In either 2018 or 2019 (sources differ), Whisps left Schuman and became independent. In particular, Whisps was hoping to capitalize on the keto and low carb diet trends, by putting out a snack that qualified for both of these. John Ghingo, formerly of Applegate Farms, took over as the CEO in 2023. And in August of 2024 Whisps was acquired by The Farmer Company, led by founder/CEO Adam Farmer. The Whisps brand is quite small, consisting of only three products. Aside from the two that I sampled, there is a cheddar cheese variant. In addition to being appropriate for keto and low carb dieters, Whisps also proudly touts that its wares lack gluten and rBST. (If you're like me and didn't know what rBST is, it stands for recombinant bovine somatotropin. It's a synthetic hormone that's given to cows to increase milk production. It's banned in places like New Zealand, Australia, Canada, and the European Union because it can have adverse health effects on the cows. There's no evidence that its use causes health problems for humans consuming the dairy products, though.) They're also free of nuts, although they are made in a facility that processes nuts. The location where the Whisps are made is a bit spread out. The cheese is made in Wisconsin, and my product labels mention that they were distributed from an address in Burlington, Vermont. However, the Whisps headquarters are reportedly in New York City.
Whisps parmesan cheese crisps: These were disc-shaped, about 1.25 inches (about 3 cm.) in diameter, with a yellowish white color and a rough, uneven exterior. No real odor to speak of. The texture was dry, and crunchy, which makes sense, since they're dried pieces of cheese, and are called "crisps." They tasted like parmesan, which again makes sense, as that's what they were. The flavor was very good to excellent. I enjoyed these immensely, and would readily recommend them.
Whisps asiago & pepper jack cheese crisps: These were the same size and shape, and outer appearance as the parmesan ones, but their hue was a light orange instead of being yellow-white. Again, not much of a smell at all. And they were similarly dry and crunchy. The flavor was very impressive. There was a decent amount of spice bite--not overpowering, but enough to make it a bit zesty and interesting. The parmesan ones were top notch, as I said, but these were maybe slightly better. Or excellent. I highly recommend these too. If you like these kinds of cheese in general, I think you'll really like them in dried baked form as well. I'll try to locate the cheddar kind, too, and report back here if I do.
The official company website invited satisfied customers to "become a Whisperer." I guess I am now, since I very much enjoyed these snacks. But, contrary to the more common definition of whispering, I WILL EXTOLL MY LOVE AND ADMIRATION OF THESE DRIED CHEESE SNACKS THIS WAY, THE WRITING EQUIVALENT OF SHOUTING.
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